This is a fairly uncommon feature and products with smart capabilities that we've tested have come and gone from the market. Tip: If dirt is stuck to the grill or the bottom of the pan, fill the pan with hot water with some washing-up liquid.

Things you should avoid putting in your air fryer include fresh greens, cheese and any food covered in wet batter.

There was no transfer of smell or flavours between the two drawers, which would make it a great tool if cooking for a family where the grown ups and kids have different tastes. However, if you’re feeding several people, or want to cook a few different food items at the same time, an oven has more space and may work out cheaper than cooking several batches in an air fryer.

One of our only irks was the navigation of selecting your function and the ambiguity of some of the function icons. Serve these meatballs over rice or mashed potatoes, or try serving them on a toothpick as an appetizer. It proved intuitive to use on test, thanks to a clear display panel, responsive controls and easy-to-use pre-sets. We recommend no fewer than four Ninja air fryers and, in some ways, that would be enough to cover the whole market.Though the Speedi does come with a recipe book, it’s limited and after a few goes you’re left to your own devices. Check out our huge selection of food preparation electricals right here, including items from top brands such as Blaupunkt, Tefal, George Foreman, Tower, Mo Health, Crockpot and Goodmans. It claims to air fry up to 70% quicker than earlier Russell Hobbs models; this wasn’t tested, but it did cook our chicken to succulent, golden perfection in a faster-than-most 30 minutes (simply press the chicken icon on the casing and it presets the optimal temperature and cooking time. It lets you see when your sausages are starting to brown and need a turn, or if your chips need a good shake to evenly coat them in oil. It heats up in minutes; chips were crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle with just a small amount of oil (from a pre-portioned scoop), sausages and fish fingers were perfectly cooked, and even my “roasted” vegetables were fairly tasty.

But if you’re interested in pressure cooking, or need a one-pot solution for a large family, it could be for you. They were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, though slightly dry (the downside to most air fryers). Just about anything you would deep fry can be air fried, and with a lot less oil and mess (like many of our favorite healthy air-fryer recipes).We also found some pricier models that gave disappointing results –including soggy, limp or tasteless chips. Compared with deep-fat fryers, air fryers are a more healthy way to cook as they use hot air and less cooking oil – or sometimes no oil at all. These gadgets are much faster to heat up and designed to circulate hot air efficiently, meaning food can be cooked much quicker than in a traditional oven. Our tests also prove that air fryers really can save you money, but only if you use them effectively by considering the cooking capacity and number of people you'll be cooking for.

As we mention above, it’s possible to achieve a similar texture and flavour of traditional fried delights with an air-crisp function for air-fried chips and air-fried roast potatoes using considerably less oil. Its controls were intuitive and easy to use – a single knob lets you switch between all the different settings – something our testers found useful. If you're after a convenient appliance that will save you time and potentially money, then an air fryer could be a worthwhile investment. Don’t continue to operate the product if you are ever in doubt about it working normally, or if it is damaged in any way. But for the purpose of the test, we shook ingredients only when prompted too and scored the appliance based on its performance.Despite this small niggle, our testers were impressed with this fryer’s versatility and easy-to-clean design. Our chips were fluffy too, but crisped up best when distributed across two drawers, rather than cramming lots into one.